Cancer experts see real risk in use of mobile phones

Children under 12 should use mobile phones "only in emergencies"

print this

An international group of researchers has issued a joint appeal aimed at increasing public awareness of hazards posed by use of mobile telephones for the brain.
     The experts say that children and young people, whose organs are still developing, are most at risk. Parents are urged not to allow children under the age of 12 to use a mobile phone except in emergency situations.
     
The team of 19 scientists brought together by researcher David Servan-Schreiber have concluded that the risk posed by mobile phones is too great not to be taken into account.
     “Today we are in the same situation in which we were 50 years ago with respect to asbestos and tobacco, says Gierry Bouillet, one of the signatories of the appeal.
     “Either we do nothing and accept the risk, or we admit that a number of worrying scientific claims exist”, Bouillet said in an interview with the French paper Le Journal du dimanche.
     One of the signatories was Henri Pujol, chairman of the French Cancer Society.
     
Servan-Schreiber, the initiator of the appeal, says that there is no absolute proof of the dangers of the telephones, but that it has been noted in scientific research that electromagnetic waves penetrate the human body.
     The researchers behind the appeal recommend the use of a hands-free device, or bluetooth earpiece. They also recommend staying at least one metre away from a person using a mobile telephone, avoiding the use of a mobile telephone on public transport.
     When carrying a phone in pocket, the keypad should be kept closest to the body and the back of the device should point away. The signatories also recommend not to keep a mobile telephone next to the bed at night.
      Kari Jokela, research professor at the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), says that it is possible to say that a risk of harm caused by mobile telephones might exist, but that nothing has been proven scientifically.
     “The situation at this stage is that there has been no great breakthrough in scientific research, which would give credence to the suspicions.”
     
Jokela says that studies on cells suggest that mobile phone radiation has some kind of influence on nearby tissue.
     “However, whether or not it is harmful is a completely different matter.”
     Jokela says that a person with very sensitive ears might be able to feel a warming sensation from mobile phone radiation. However, warming caused by radiation would be less than the warming of the telephone cover itself. According to Jokela, radiation from a mobile phone could cause at most a temperature increase of 0.3 degrees in the surface part of the brain.
     
The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) drew up recommendations on limits to exposure to the radiation.
     The recommended maximum in Finland is two watts per kilogram, which has been set as a norm by state officials.


Links:
  International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection

Helsingin Sanomat